The Consultant's Balancing Act: Career, Travel, and Everything In Between
with Belgin Kocaman, Nina Loske, Madina Makhmudova
Beyond the Pilot: How to Lead an AI Transformation That Sticks
Hunter Lee Canning, Eryn Peters, Ken Sterling, Kelly Blackmon, Stephen Salaka
October 14, 2026 02:00 PM EDT
October 14, 2026 02:00 PM EDT
Virtual
Most AI initiatives don’t fail because of the technology. They fail because companies underestimate how much the right people, in the right roles, with the right implementation support around them, actually matter. In this session, leaders from across industries will share what separates organizations that scale AI successfully from those that don’t, including real examples of transformations that built lasting internal capability and left teams confident enough to own the work themselves.
Topics will include:
- AI initiatives stall on people and process, not technology. The organizations that scale successfully are the ones that invest as much in the right roles and implementation support as they do in the model itself, because that's usually where the gap actually shows up.
- Scaling AI means building internal capability, not just running a pilot. The difference between a one-off proof of concept and a lasting transformation comes down to whether teams develop the skills and ownership to carry the work forward on their own.
- Confidence is the real marker of success. The organizations that get AI transformation right leave their teams feeling equipped and trusted to own the work themselves, rather than dependent on outside support to keep it running.
This event will be eligible for SHRM credits.
Meet The Speakers
Hunter Lee Canning
Founder of Plumwheel & PowerToFly Virtual Event Host
Hunter Lee Canning (he/they) is allergic to corporate jargon and proud of it. With two decades in Hollywood and over 800 virtual events hosted, Hunter delivers no-BS keynotes showing B2B teams how to break free from boring 'professional' presentations. As the queer, neurodiverse founder of Plumwheel, Hunter has perfected this approach by turning conversations into compelling video campaigns that boost engagement 300% for growing companies and enterprises. Sales teams love them, CFOs fund them. Go figure. You can connect with Hunter on LinkedIn.
Eryn Peters
Co-Creator @ AI Maturity Index
Eryn is a future of work evangelist, retired digital nomad, workforce expert, and scale-up builder. She is the founder of Startup Consortium, editor of Weekly Workforce, and Co-Creator of the AI Maturity Index. Before founding Startup Consortium, she built two unicorns in the staffing industry where her work has helped 4.5 million people in over 190 countries access new learning and job opportunities.
Ken Sterling
AI, Tech and Media Attorney, Sterling Media Law and Opus Intelligence Labs
Ken Sterling is not a lawyer who learned technology from the sidelines. He has been coding since 8th grade, worked at Intel, earned Cisco CCNA, Microsoft MCSE, and CompTIA A+ certifications, and built data centers before becoming a lawyer. Today, Ken is a Century City technology, AI, media, and business attorney, VC LP, entrepreneur, USC professor, and board advisor with a rare blend of legal, technology, media, and operating experience. He co-founded an early cloud CRM company that was partially acquired by KPMG, then co-founded a bank, and in his earlier years, co-founded a global manufacturing company. Ken serves as general counsel and strategic advisor to technology and growth companies, advising founders, executives, investors, platforms, and media businesses on law, capital, AI, data, intellectual property, transactions, reputation, platform liability, and business strategy. He teaches at USC Gould School of Law and USC Annenberg, serves as General Counsel to Opus Intelligence Labs, and writes as a columnist for Forbes and Inc. Magazine.
Kelly Blackmon
Founder of B.E. Consulting
Kelly Blackmon is an organizational strategist and founder of B.E. Consulting. His work focuses on culture architecture, AI integration, and leadership decision-making under acceleration. Through frameworks like AI-EQ and CultureEQ, he helps organizations assess stability, clarify risk exposure, and implement transformation without eroding trust or performance. Kelly has advised leaders across HR, talent, and executive functions on aligning innovation with workforce integrity.
Stephen Salaka
AI Enablement Manager, HII Mission Technologies
Stephen Salaka leads AI Enablement for HII Mission Technologies, where he runs the AI and custom-agent teams and the governance program that puts AI tools in the hands of more than 8,000 users across the division. He came to the work sideways. Thirty years of building and merging technology organizations (12 post-acquisition IT groups folded into one at SMTC, predictive maintenance software for the F-35 and F-22 before that) taught him that the technology is rarely what fails. People do, when nobody plans for them. That pushed him into pursuing his PhD in industrial/organizational psychology, and it is the lens he brings to AI adoption now: why pilots stall, what makes a new habit survive contact with a real workday, and how leaders can tell the difference between a rollout and a transformation. He also holds an MBA and a BS in computer science, and has spent six years working in Japan, which is where he first learned that a change plan nobody believes in is worse than cat herding. cats
